Learn a lesson from consumers: Fight back

DANIEL VASQUEZ COMMENTARY

It's crucial to keep track of every dollar spent and every charge incurred, especially now as so many consumer staples, including gas, milk and rice, reach record prices.

Some businesses will try to bump up your bill to bring in extra profit. Some may even make a mistake and overcharge. And I hear plenty of stories from readers who feel frustrated or cheated after buying a product or signing a contract because they didn't get exactly what they wanted or didn't understand what they signed up for.

I have a lot of respect for consumers who consistently play close attention to contract terms, extra fees and warranties. And for those who stand up for themselves when they feel they've been wronged at the cash register.

Roslyn K. Rudolph of Boca Raton is a retired senior citizen who is clearly one of those tough consumers. She is a former bookkeeper who takes her financial commitments seriously.

"I pay my bills on time," Rudolph told me when she called to talk about a problem she was having with a credit card company.

Rudolph's personal records reflected that she owed GE Money nothing. The card issuer claimed she owned $248 in late fees.

"I don't agree," Rudolph said. "I wasn't late with any of my payments."

She said she tried to explain her position to GE, but was told she had to pay or would be reported to the credit bureaus - a move that would hurt her good credit rating.

Rudolph had opened a new account last September that offered 0 percent interest for six months. She says she made $3,000 in purchases and soon after made her first payment of $2,000 and paid off the rest in the next five months.

Her problem began with a December payment. As she always does, Rudolph says she sent the payment at least five days before it was due. GE claimed it received the payment 15 days late and charged a $30 late fee. She did not dispute it at the time because she thought it was a mistake and would be corrected. It became nearly $250 by March because the late fee had compounded and risen by the time she made her last payment.

Rudolph was at the end of her rope when she called me. The only explanation she could come up with was that in December terrible storms had struck Florida and Texas where her payments were processed and that perhaps bad weather had caused a postal or processing delay. She was in the midst of trying to gather newspaper weather reports to send GE along with bank statements showing that the rest of her payments were on time.

I called GE and they promised to look into the case.

Later that day, Rudolph called me back: "They will wipe out my balance," she said. "They said in the interest of good customer relations, they're going to zero the balance. I am the happiest lady in Boca Raton thanks to you."

The lesson here: Regardless of what prompted GE to take the action, Rudolph deserves credit for keeping good records of her payments, for catching the problem and for fighting back. GE did the right thing, too.

Unfortunately, the case of Saundra Perlstein, a travel agent from Tamarac, doesn't have such a happy ending. But her case offers several lessons, as well.

Perlstein's husband, Harvey, passed away from lung cancer in August. In May, when he was diagnosed, she signed a $20,000 contract with a local funeral home for a "pre-need" plan that included plots, caskets and footstones for she and her husband.

Earlier this month it came time for her to finalize details on her husband's footstone. Perlstein chose to memorialize him by adding to his name the words "Loving Husband, Dad, Grandpa," as well as his 13-letter Hebrew name.

Her bill reflected those additions would cost $644, including an $80 "processing" fee for any work that cost above $500. "They really have you coming and going," she said.

Perlstein, still emotionally distraught over her loss, found this tough to deal with since she had spent so much money already. She was also upset to learn that if she wanted to upgrade from a gray footstone to a pink one, it would cost another $900. Calls by her to other local businesses revealed pink would cost substantially less.

Even if she believes the charges are too high, her contract stated the footstone contract only included name and birth year and year of death.

In the end, to cut her costs, she left out her husband's Hebrew name and avoided the processing fee.

The ordeal just added pain to Perlstein's experience.

Pre-need contracts do make sense, she says, because they allow families to deal with difficult financial details before a loss occurs and emotions play a role. On the other hand, she still ran into trouble in the end because she didn't understand the terms of her contract fully.

"I should have investigated the business of lettering," Perlstein told me. "I should have looked at the contract more closely."

Fortunately, I don't think her husband will mind.

"He told me I should cremate him and scatter his ashes on a bumpy road," Perlstein said. "I said no, I wanted a place to visit him where I could yell at him."

Daniel Vasquez can be reached at dvasquez@sun-sentinel.com, 954-356-4219 or 561-243-6600, ext. 4219. To see more columns from Daniel Vasquez, go to sun-sentinel.com/vasquez.

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